A Bronx man faces fees of tried homicide and assault as hate crimes after utilizing an anti-white slur earlier than stabbing two teenage sisters at a restaurant in Grand Central Terminal on Christmas Day, in line with officers and court docket data.
The ladies, 16 and 14, have been visiting New York from Paraguay and have been with their mother and father on the restaurant within the terminal’s eating concourse at round 11:30 a.m. when the assault occurred, Metropolitan Transportation Authority officers stated.
The authority officers recognized the attacker as Steven Hutcherson, 36. In a legal grievance charging him, prosecutors recognized the suspect as Esteban Esono-Asue, one other identify he makes use of.
After Mr. Esono-Asue entered the eating space of the restaurant, Tartinery, an worker requested him to go away, in line with the grievance.
Mr. Esono-Asue, the grievance says, responded by saying: “I’ll leave. I don’t want the white man to get you.”
Mr. Esono-Asue, who’s Black, in line with a police report in regards to the assault, then requested a second worker to seat him at a desk so he may place an order, the grievance says.
When the worker started to seat him, in line with the grievance, Mr. Esono-Asue balked.
“I don’t want to sit with the Black people,” he stated, in line with the grievance. “I want to sit with the crackers.”
Shortly after Mr. Esono-Asue was seated and given water, the grievance says, the second Tartinery worker noticed him get up, strategy a desk the place a household that gave the impression to be white was sitting, pull a knife from his pocket and stab one of many women within the again.
Because the household tried to flee, he stabbed the second lady within the leg, in line with the grievance. Neither harm was life-threatening, and the women have been taken to Bellevue Hospital, the place the older sister was handled for a collapsed lung, in line with officers and the grievance.
Tartinery’s administration didn’t reply to e mail and cellphone messages.
Mr. Esono-Asue was arraigned late Tuesday in Manhattan Prison Courtroom, the place a choose ordered that he be detained, in line with a spokesman for the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace.
He’s awaiting sentencing within the Bronx in a case arising from an episode in November. Initially charged with a number of low-level crimes within the matter, he pleaded responsible to a misdemeanor assault cost this month.
A Authorized Help Society lawyer representing Mr. Esono-Asue within the Bronx case declined to remark. A society spokesman didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the Manhattan case.
